Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-05-21
AN ASSAULT UPON THE STATE FAIR,
AND HOW TO MEET IT.

the coast. 1t was never the intention of
its founders that it should become sponge
to absorb vitality from agricultural expo
sitions Of the people, or to run in opposi-
ton to them. But recently it has been
manipulated by scheming few as a means
of otfense to the interior
Under this new system the Association,
which is 4 private concern, has been made
to run counter to the district and the
State Fairs. In doing this the managers
have manifested the most selfish and I'M
generous spirit, and have proven recreant
to an understanding that should have been
held as sacred as a contract.
They now propose to begin their fair so
early and continue ii so late as to embrace
in the period the dates of several of the
district fairs and of the State Fair. There
is no Disgusting the purpose that underIies
the scheme. Plate it as they may, it is
the aim to crush the State Agricultural
Society.
All the plausible phrasing that has been
INDUCED in regarding the need for a great
exposition in San Francisco the expected
influx of strangers, the desirability of
coast exhibition, and all that, will not
serve to cloak the real intent.
Last year the Boards of Trade of Sac
ramento and San Francisco appointed
committees to confer with the managers
of the San Francisco Fair and the Direct
ors of the State Agricultural Society. to
arrive at an arrangement, if possible, to
have the dates of that and the State Fair
so fixed as not to conflict The conference
was held and the joint committee resolved
that the dates ought not to Jar and
the San Francisco organization was asked
to fix its opening date in August and the
State Agricultural Society to place its date
In September, one week after the fifth
Saturday in August, when the San Fran
cisco exposition should close. On account
of the Grand Army celebration, the Me-
chanics' Institute Fair management re-
ported that it could not comply that year,
but it was understood by all that thereaf-
ter there should be no conflict.
In the face of this the San Francisco
concern has now Tapped early and late
dates so as to completely cover any time
possible to the State Agricultural Society
In addition, it has entered into an ac-
tive canvass to draw from the State Society
the county exhibits, which grew out of the
plans of and were inaugurated by the
State Society, and generally to compete
with the latter by lavish expenditure of
money, and by such entry upon the dis
tinctively true realm of agricultural fairs as
to render the latter of less interest and to
withdraw from them exhibitors and pat
ronage.
in another column appears commuui- |
cation upon the subject from Mr.. NJ. D. |
Bcruck, an ex-oficer of the State Society,
to the vigorous expression of which we
invite attention. His suggestion that ac-
ton should be taken at once to counteract
the influence at work in antagonism to
the State Fair, is worthy of immediate
consideration and instant activity.
There is room enough and time enough |
for both of these fairs. That summer |
exposition in San Francisco should be |
held no one gainsays. That it will be
productive of good results is not ques-
ton TO be debated. But that it should |
trench upon the date of the State Society |
or endeayor to strip from the latter any of |
Its opportunities to maintain an exhibition
creditable to the State and conducive to
Its Development is indefensible.
Let us look the question squarely in the
face; wherever the State Fair might be
located it would be of considerable local
interest, and excite something of the envy
of other localities. In fact, State institu-
lions cannot be wholly delocalized So
far, then, as Sacramento is concerned her
interest in the State Fair is just what that
OF San Jose or Los Angeles or Stockton or
Oakland or any other place would be, if
the fair was there located. But all the
people have a deep interest in the State
Fair and the District Fairs as State in
stitutions, which are fostered and sup
ported by the State, and are controlled
and differed by it. There is no State
Of the Union without these exposi-
tons, and in no other State does
the chief city of the commonwealth
run " a fair in opposition to that of the
State. All such cities find it to their in
terest to conserve all the district and the
State fairs, and always labor to build up
md develop the interior In San Fran
CISCO We find the one and only city that
holds 1t to be wise and honorable to cripple
he country.
California is not to be settled and
'eopled by concentrating strangers in San
Francisco. That great city ought to do
III in her power to induce the summer
'isitors to traverse the State visit every {
,art of it, and attend all the agricultural
md stock exhibitions. Upon the develop {
nent, prosperity and rapid advancement
+ the interior San Francisco's commercial j
Importance very largely depends. She I
hould, therefore, do nothing to impede the t
eople Of the agricultural regions in their |
lbors to draw population to the vast pro- c
uctiye area of the State, or to expose to |
lew in agricultural regions the products i